Yes, Masters (Book 2 of Desire's Den)

Chapter 48 - Callan

It took two more days for Emma's fever to break.

Two days of nursing our girl; giving her all the attention and care she needed.

Two days of putting things in place so she would be safe here. We'd had a meeting with the guys from T.E.A.M, and while they'd made changes to make Gideon's estate secure, they were still working on plans to keep her safe outside of it. We wouldn't let the fucker take away her freedom to do whatever and go wherever she felt like.

And it had been two days of trying to find the scum who put her under so much strain that it made her sick—and failing. He was good, covering his tracks. It was almost like a game of hide and fucking seek; we found a video of what we suspected was him from a surveillance camera by Emma's street, but he was turned at just the right angle that we couldn't make out his face. The video was from the night Emma had been attacked at Euphoria. The second Gideon had gotten the video sent to him by his hacker lady, he'd stiffened, and fuck...the rage that poured out from him was enough to make the bravest man cautious. It turned out that Gideon had seen the man on the video that night, staring at Emma's building, and walking away before Gideon could react.

We found more videos from the same surveillance camera, all coincided on the days Emma had gotten gifts from him. In one of the videos, he fucking waved at the camera, as if he knew that we would somehow watch this days later, but his face was never shown.

On the third day, Emma's fever was completely gone, but that didn't mean that she was that much better. We could still see how her heavy thoughts were weighting her down, seeping energy from her.

"She didn't want to leave the bed," Mateo said as he joined us in Gideon's office. We were studying the videos, hoping to catch something that would hint at the fucker's identity.

"Then you should've dragged her from it" Gideon said on a huff, not even turning towards Mateo, but kept his eyes on the screen.

My eyes zeroed in on Gideon's white knuckles, and I mentally counted down the hours until he would reach a point where his anger needed an outlet. Staring at this shit all day without anything to show for it—not a damn hint at who he was—would've made anyone mad, but perhaps more so for Gideon.

"Dude, you can't be fucking serious." Mateo gaped in shock, but I only shook my head, not really surprised by Gideon's tough love method.

"She gave us permission to take care of her as we saw fit," Gideon answered, finally pausing the video and turned towards Mateo. "And her staying in bed all day won't do her any good, least of all for her mental health." He stared him down as if daring him to disagree.

"But she's tired—"

"And she'll continue to be tired if she stays in bed," Gideon cut him off. "So get her the fuck up and give her something else to think about instead of this shit." He gestured towards the screen in front of him.

Gideon was right. Staying in bed when the world was a little too tough was a temptation; one both Gideon and I knew all too damn well. I used to sleep to escape the economic burden a kid shouldn't have worried about, and it had mostly worked, but it was a vicious circle that made your body and mind dependent on sleep to pull through. And Gideon, there was a period after his parents had died when he couldn't leave the bed—all too caught up in past horrors to focus on new beginnings.

"I'll go," I interjected, rising from my seat. Mateo was too soft-hearted. There was one thing for him to dominate someone that wanted to be dominated and bossing someone that might not appreciate it. It didn't help that Emma was his weakness, and since she wasn't his sub, he would continue having problems to tell her no.